Even in a hierarchy people can be equal as thinkers.
Knowing their boundaries are respected, people think at their best.

In a Thinking Environment, everyone is valued equally as a thinker. Everyone gets a turn to think out loud and a turn to give attention. To know you will get your turn to speak makes your attention more genuine and relaxed. It also makes your speaking more succinct.

Equality keeps the talkative people from silencing the quiet ones. But it also requires the quiet ones to value and contribute their own thinking. In a Thinking Environment no one can abdicate responsibility for thinking. And the resulting high quality of ideas and decisions means that everyone benefits.

A Thinking Environment is also a structure of boundaries, allowing true freedom of thinking to occur. The Thinking Partnership Session^®, Transforming Meetings^®, and Mentoring in a Thinking Environment™ are especially effective programs for developing this kind of Equality.

Equality: Giving equal turns and attention - Respecting Boundaries and Agreements

US photography by Jim Thomas http://brinkwoodeditions.com